


you're knocking at my heart

by nykteris



Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, rated T for language lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 19:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7282405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nykteris/pseuds/nykteris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minkyung has a crush on Kyungwon. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to go. High School AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> pledis girls are great, minkyung is amazing, kyungwon is gorgeous, and 2kyung is everything. thanks to jess for helping me get into pledis girls; this one's for you!
> 
> title is from 'knock knock knock' by ioi.

****"Alright, folks," Minkyung announces. She places her hands on her hips to try and look as authoritative as possible. She lets out a breath and says, "Operation 'Get Kyungwon to Go Out With Me' is now in full swing."

Siyeon rolls her eyes and pops the bubblegum in her mouth. Jieqiong just looks at Minkyung with a sympathetic expression plastered on her face. And Yebin...was Yebin even listening?

"Come on, guys!" Minkyung exclaims, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I thought you guys were going to help me out  — you _promised_!"

"Yeah," Siyeon replies, "but that was before you gave this whole thing a really stupid name." 

"I gotta agree with her on that one," Yebin says with a shrug. "Besides, you don't even need such elaborate scheming — " 

" _Planning_ , Yebin. This isn't a scheme, it's a _plan_ ," Minkyung interjects.

"Yeah, anyway, as I was saying before you decided to rudely interrupt me," Yebin continues, "you don't need such elaborate _scheming_ to fucking talk to a girl you have a crush on. You literally just walk up to her and talk to her."

Jieqiong nods. "You don't have to over-complicate it, you know."

"Mostly because your plan is horrible and it'll probably just earn you a restraining order," Siyeon says snidely.

Minkyung glares at them all. But she does have to admit that they have a point, and these are the some of the sanest people she knows  — okay, maybe Yebin could be a little questionable sometimes and Jieqiong had her moments more often than not, but hey, Siyeon could totally be counted on. Siyeon is reliable and just a little bit borderline cynical, but definitely reliable. "Okay, fine," Minkyung concedes. "Maybe you guys are right or whatever."

Siyeon scoffs. "Of course we're right 'or whatever'."

"I'm gonna go ahead and ignore that," Minyung says to Siyeon, glaring at her pointedly. She turns to Jieqiong and Yebin. "So what do I do? Do I just walk up to her and talk to her?"

"Yes, Minkyung," Yebin drawls. "Jesus, that is literally all you need to do. Why do you keep making your life more miserable than it probably already is?"

"Hey, screw you," Minkyung grumbles. "My life is _not_ miserable!"

"You'd have to be pretty miserable to actually make this elaborate scheme that involves serenading her in a language you don't even know how to speak, gifting her with a teddy bear that's twice the size of both you _and_ Nayoung and will put you in debt earlier than you should be — not that you should ever be in debt, just so we're clear — because that thing is crazy expensive and not to mention the church choir you plan on hiring to make a choral rendition of Carly Rae Jepsen's 'I Really Like You'. So, yeah  — sounds pretty miserable to me." Yebin cocks a brow at Minkyung.

"Okay, were you even _breathing_ when you said all that?" Jieqiong asks in disbelief. Yebin smiles proudly and Jieqiong shakes her head. She turns to Minkyung and says, "Yebin sort of, kind of, maybe has a point, though."

Minkyung groans. She thought Jieqiong would at least have her back but clearly she is surrounded by a group of traitors. "So what if she has a point?"

"So you agree with me, then?" Yebin quips and Minkyung flips her the bird.

"No, I do _not_ agree with you, not even in the slightest," Minkyung grumbles. "The point is: I'm too shy to talk to her, and even if I had the figurative balls to do it, it's not like I'd know what to talk to her about."

Siyeon rolls her eyes for the nth time that afternoon. "Listen, all you have to do is literally just go up to her when you get the chance, talk about something off the top of your head and you're good."

"Yes, I get that but what do I talk about? Life? Sports? Quantum physics?"

"Quantum physics. How sexy."

Minkyung frowns. "Hey, some girls _do_ find that stuff sexy, you know."

"So go talk to her about quantum physics then for all we care," Yebin says. "Though I highly doubt that Kyungwon gives a damn about that stuff."

Jieqiong socks Yebin in the arm and if the broken nose and the now less than perfect teeth of the mugger they once came across after a game at another school were any indicators, Jieqiong could seriously pack a punch if she wanted. "Don't listen to Yebin. In fact, don't listen to most of the stuff she has to say. And, look, it's not like Kyungwon is out of your league anyway."

Siyeon nods. "You're one of the star players of the volleyball team. You're a decent student, decent grades and good records. You have a car — girls love that — and you can charm the socks off of anyone's parents. Plus, you're tall and you're pretty. You have nothing to worry about, you idiot."

Minkyung's lips curl into a smile and Siyeon smiles back. "You know, when you aren't busy being the scary one of the group, you really aren't so bad, Siyeon. And you have a point — I'm, like, the Paris of people."

" _Please_ stop quoting Brooklyn Nine-Nine on us," Jieqiong groans.

"Okay then, well I'm confidently beautiful with a heart."

"Just stop right there, Minkyung," Yebin says. "We get the point."

Minkyung claps her hands together. "Okay, this meeting is now adjourned, thank you all for your cooperation — except you, Yebin, because all you've done is drag me."

 

Minkyung's stupid crush started after she arrived late to class and Mr. Hong assigned her a seat that just so happened to be the seat right behind Kyungwon's. She didn't mind because the seat she was assigned was a little far back and she could probably get away with texting on her phone or doodling unflattering caricatures of Mr. Hong on her notebook. So she takes it in stride and happily plops down on the seat.

For the most part, she's right: Mr. Hong barely paid any attention to what was happening at the back of the class, his focus so zeroed out on the black board. He rarely ever seemed to turn around to face the class, kind of just talking about equations and stuff to the board instead of the students. Probably a bad thing in the long run, but the consequences of that could wait later.

Minkyung was idly spinning around a ballpen in her hand when she got distracted by two of her classmates  — Seungkwan and Chan— throwing crumpled pieces of paper at each other as quietly as possible and her pen went flying to the ground. She easily could have picked up the pen herself, or at least she thought that, so she tried to reach for it with her leg; it seemed like a pretty solid plan because she had legs for days anyway. Except she was _this_ close to completely sliding out and under her desk when the girl in front of her, Kyungwon, seemed to notice Minkyung's struggles and picked up the pen herself.  Kyungwon turned around and handed back Minkyung her pen, saying, "Here's your pen."

"Thanks," Minkyung sheepishly said.

Then Kyungwon's lips curled into a small smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and Minkyung swears that her heart had stopped beating for a whole five seconds and she was practically and probably clinically dead at that point. She took in every detail of Kyungwon's face, her shoulder length hair, the shape of her lips. _God, she's cute_.

And so Minkyung was plunged into cute girl hell and she couldn't get out even if she wanted to.

 

Nayoung hands Minkyung a bottle of Gatorade and asks, "So, how's Operation 'Get Kyungwon to Go Out With Me' going for you?"

Minkyung almost drops the bottle on her toes and she's glad she doesn't because that's the last thing she needs. She wipes off the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand and says, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Nayoung looks at her pointedly over the rim of her bottle of Gatorade and Minkyung sighs, "Okay, fine." Minkyung takes large gulps from her bottle and continues, "Can I at least know how you found out?"

"I'm team captain," Nayoung replies simply. Her mouth twitches into a very minuscule smile. "I know things."

"So basically what you mean to say is that Siyeon, Yebin and Jieqiong told you that I gathered them all at the locker room yesterday to discuss my _very_ well-thought out and articulate plan on how to woo Kyungwon."

"Eh."

Minkyung blushes despite herself. "I would have asked you to join us but you'd probably just think it's a huge waste of time and energy."

"Siyeon says it was."

" _Of course_ she'd say that." Minkyung purses her lips. "They told me that I should just drop the plan entirely and just talk to Kyungwon."

Nayoung shrugs. "It's not bad advice."

"What do _you_ think I should do?"

"I'd have said the same thing as them. Don't make your life more complicated than it needs to be."

Minkyung thinks that hearing it from Nayoung makes everything sound a lot more logical as compared to having three of her friends dragging her ass in the mud for, quote unquote, being a whipped piece of shit (she truly hates Yebin sometimes) in a locker room. Hearing the words right out of Nayoung's mouth makes everything sound a lot more legit. Minkyung caps her bottle of Gatorade and says, "You're right. Thanks, Nayoung."

Nayoung smiles and it's a rarity to see so Minkyung cherishes the moment. They leave their bottle by their bags and resume with training. In the locker room after they shower, Nayoung asks, "How'd you meet Kyungwon, by the way?"

"Oh, we're classmates in math," Minkyung replies as she pulls her shirt over her head.

Nayoung scoffs. "So that's why you're failing math."

 

It's not that Minkyung is terrible at conversations or with making friends. In grade school, she'd won the Miss Congeniality award while simultaneously getting a million and one complaints during the parents-teachers night about her being so talkative. So _clearly_ , Minkyung has no trouble talking to people and befriending strangers.

Except she doesn't have a crush any of those people but she has a crush on Kyungwon. _That's_ the difference.

She can hardly count any of her interactions with Kyungwon as 'talking'. If they spoke to each other, it would only be about math and even those conversations were sparse. Kyungwon spent most of her time in class scribbling down neat notes and generally acting like a good student. Minkyung feels ashamed when she thinks of it because most of the time she spends in class are wasted on trying not to stare too much at the back of Kyungwon's head.

She finally decides to give everyone's advice a go.

 

**Monday.**

_Today is gonna be the day I finally properly talk to Kyungwon_ , Minkyung tells herself when she wakes up. Her resolve is firm; she's a woman with a purpose, and she's going to get her girl. All of the pep talk and personal hypewoman-ing goes to absolute shit when she bumps into Kyungwon in the hallway and she runs the opposite direction when Kyungwon smiles at her. She avoids looking at Kyungwon during math class but Kyungwon hardly notices a thing anyway.

(Jieqiong scolds her, "When the girl you like smiles at you, you don't _run away_ from them! What do you think that'll make her feel?"

" _Smooth_ ," Eunwoo snickers. "Real smooth."

"Fucking romantic," Yebin says, dramatically clutching her chest. "That's all I look for in a girl: someone who'll run away from me like I'm the plague because she's too much of a wimp to admit she has a crush on me."

Minkyung throws her towel at Yebin's face and there's an uproar in the locker room.)

So Monday was a bust —  whatever. But there's always every other day of the goddamn week, so Minkyung doesn't feel so disheartened, won't allow herself to feel that way.

**Tuesday.**

_Today is gonna be the day_ . Minkyung walks through the hallways of the school with her chin held high and her dignity still somewhat intact. She smiles and high-fives almost everyone she passes, which just earns her a glare from Siyeon. Okay, maybe this is just her way of (over)compensating for the fact that she made a fool of herself just yesterday when she ran away from Kyungwon ("You just ran away from your feelings," Yebin says, "Like, _literally_ "), but she isn't about to let Siyeon's judgement ruin her good morning.

Thankfully, she doesn't bump into Kyungwon this morning so she's off to a good start. And then lunch break hits her in the face like a bitch.

She, Yebin, Eunwoo and Jieqiong are having lunch under their designated tree ("This is our official tree," Eunwoo had declared and Nayoung just rolled her eyes at her), a volleyball set down beside their bags. The ball is Eunwoo's and they asked her to bring it so they could play a little, passing around the ball and all that. Siyeon would have tagged along but she's with Shannon, Kyla and Yewon, and Nayoung is busy with student council responsibilities. They finish their lunch and start practicing their passing and everything is going just fine  — Jieqiong passes the ball to Yebin who passes it to Eunwoo who passes it finally to Minkyung  — until a familiar voice calls out, "Oh, Minkyung!" and Minkyung nearly snaps her neck turning to look at the one who called her  — of course it's Kyungwon, goddamn Kyungwon. The ball hits her square in the face and she starts seeing stars.

Yebin, Eunwoo and Jieqiong just laugh at her. _Thanks for nothing, absolutely nothing, you guys_.

When she finally manages to shake herself out of her daze (and most of her pain), she finds Kyungwon looking at her all weird like she's torn between feeling bad for Minkyung and wanting to laugh at Minkyung and if the expression on her face wasn't so cute, Minkyung would have totally hated her too. Minkyung is saved by the bell from her agony and she hurriedly gathers her stuff and runs to her next class without so much as a word to Kyungwon.

So much for today being the day.

**Wednesday.**

_Today is gonna be the day. I hope. Holy shit, please just let today be the day, damn it._

Minkyung's morning is almost identical to yesterday's, and her lunch break proves to be a lot better and a lot less embarrassing, so her hope is renewed. She thinks that, yeah, today really must be her day, it's _got_ to be. All that's left is math class and she will _finally_ make her move and talk to Kyungwon about  — oh, okay she didn't think of that one yet. She scrolls through her phone's contacts and her thumb hovers over Yebin's name until she scrolls down to Siyeon's number and shoots her a quick text: _hey what do i talk to kyungwon about?_

Siyeon replies almost immediately: _quantum physics since you seem to get off on that_.

Minkyung groans. She types _thanks for that siyeon that's helpful_ and hits send. Siyeon replies with a _you're welcome <3 _ and Minkyung pockets her phone. She considers texting one of the other girls but figures that she can probably handle this all on her own. It couldn't possibly be that hard anyway, right?

Finally, it's time for math. There's a skip to her steps as she walks to class. She's both excited and nervous and she hopes she won't just start blurting out stupid or incoherent things when she finally gets to talk to Kyungwon. She walks into the classroom and immediately notices that the seat right in front of her, Kyungwon's seat, is empty. She shrugs it off; Kyungwon would surely be here, if not a little later than usual.

The class fills up, Mr. Hong walks in and Minkyung waits for Kyungwon to come bursting through the door and into her seat. Minkyung waits, and waits, and waits. They're halfway through their class when Minkyung just accepts the fact that Kyungwon won't be here today. She sighs and thinks that making a fool of herself trying to talk to Kyungwon is a lot easier to swallow than not even doing anything and already losing the opportunity to do so.

 _Today is_ not _the day_ , she scribbles dejectedly on her notebook.

**Thursday.**

_Today is gonna be th_ —

Ah, fuck it.

**Friday.**

"In the words of Bastille," Minkyung says with a deep sigh, " _How am I gonna be an optimist about this?_ "

"Lighten up, Minky," Yebin says. She pats Minkyung on the head consolingly but it only makes Minkyung feel even worse. "You'll get your girl soon enough."

Jieqiong nods and smiles a bright and optimistic smile. Minkyung wishes some of that optimism would just seep into her. "I'm positive you can woo any girl you want, so you'll definitely woo Kyungwon."

"She wasn't even in school the other day," Minkyung mumbles.

"People get sick, you know," Jieqiong deadpans.

Minkyung just groans at the both of them and they decide to drop the topic entirely. The morning bell rings and they go their separate ways to their respective classes. Minkyung powers herself through the day and wishes it was just Saturday already so she could sleep all day and neglect most of her responsibilities and regret doing that the next day. Besides, coach gave them the day off on Saturday, so she might as well spend it as leisurely as possible.

Nothing spectacular happens through-out the day and come math class, she's bored to her wit's end. Kyungwon's desk is still empty, still no Kyungwon to make her afternoon a little more tolerable. Mr. Hong still mumbles his lectures to the blackboard and really, how did this guy even make it this far as a teacher?

Class ends and just as she walks past Mr. Hong on her way out of the classroom, he says, "Ms. Kim, a moment please."

Minkyung wonders what she could have possibly done to make Mr. Hong ask her to stay for a bit to talk to her but she hesitantly walks towards him. "Is something wrong, sir?"

Mr. Hong finishes tidying up his things and sits back down on the teacher's chair. "As you very well know, Ms. Kang has been absent of late and has been missing out on some lectures and homework."

"Okay," Minkyung mumbles but the intonation of her voice makes it sound more like a question, more of an _okay?_ "So, what does that have to do with me, sir?"

"Quite simple, really: I would like you to fill Ms. Kang in on our latest lessons, share some of your notes with her."

Minkyung almost blurts out "I barely take notes" but she stops herself because that's obviously the last thing her teacher would want to hear. Plus, her grades aren't exactly the most stellar. She puts it in a different persepective though: Mr. Hong asking her to help Kyungwon catch up gives her a reason to talk to Kyungwon (albeit about math still, but that could be fixed later on) and for her to get on the other girl's good side. She never thought she'd see the day when she would actually be thankful for Mr. Hong's existence. "Sure thing, sir. I'll do that tonight."

Mr. Hong smiles. "Excellent! Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Kim. I appreciate it and I'm sure Ms. Kang would greatly appreciate it too."

When Minkyung gets home after training, she rushes to finish her dinner and to finish taking a shower, looks up Kyungwon on Facebook and hits send on the 'send friend request' button. She paces her room, waiting for Kyungwon to accept her friend request and she starts to feel a little dismayed when almost an hour passes and the other girl still hasn't responded. She almost gives up until a notification pops up on her screen; it says _Kyungwon has accepted your friend request_. She lets out a loud whoop before she wonders why she never thought of this before; it seriously would have made her life a bit easier.

Minkyung considers going through Kyungwon's entire profile but she stops herself because a) that's just plain weird, b) she had to do what Mr. Hong asked of her and c) okay maybe she'd check out Kyungwon's profile _later_. For now, she types in a message to Kyungwon on Messenger.

 **Minkyung** : hey there! :)

Her phone lights up a few seconds later and she sees a reply from Kyungwon.

 **Kyungwon** : hey :) what's up?

 _Oh my God, this is really happening,_ Minkyung thinks and she's biting down so hard on her lip to stop herself from squealing and making other embarrassing noises otherwise her mom would kill her for being so loud. _Holy shit. Okay, get it together, Minkyung._

 **Minkyung** : mr. hong asked me to help you catch up on some stuff in class

 **Minkyung** : y'know, lectures and stuff

 **Minkyung** : i'll send you pics of class notes and worksheets ^^

Minkyung scrolls through her gallery and sends all of the pictures she had taken of notes and homework. The homework sheets were hers, but the notes were someone else's because she had very little to boast in that area. She'd had to message Seokmin asking for pictures of his notes and luckily he was nice enough to actually help her out. By which she means he actually asked her to pay up for them and she agreed.

 **Kyungwon** : thanks! this is really nice of you ^^ i'm sorry for the hassle it must have caused you tho :/

 **Minkyung** : psh it's fine! ^^ this was no trouble at all

 **Kyungwon** : sucks being sick :(

Minkyung bites down on her lip and thinks of what to reply.

 **Minkyung** : awww are you feeling better now at least? :<

Okay, now Minkyung kind of wants to slap herself in the face for acting too cutesy in her reply. She would consider deleting it and sending a different and far more chill one, but Kyungwon's already seen it and she replies a few seconds later.

 **Kyungwon** : yup! thankfully, haha

 **Minkyung** : that's good to hear ^^

Minkyung chews on her lower lip, hurriedly types something and presses the send button before she chickens out and doesn't say it.

 **Minkyung** : math isn't quite the same without you around

 **Minkyung** : school's boring without you around

Three dots appear, meaning Kyungwon is typing in her reply. Minkyung is left hanging by the edge of her seat for what the other girl could possibly reply and she's worried that maybe Kyungwon will find it weird that someone who's never really spoken to her before and literally just added her on Facebook a few minutes ago is suddenly spewing out shit like this in a lame attempt to flirt. She's about to type an apology or maybe a lame excuse or maybe a lame joke — whichever works — when Kyungwon's reply finally arrives.

 **Kyungwon** : you're making me blush, minkyung

"Holy fuck," Minkyung gasps. She probably shouldn't have because if her parents heard her, she'd get a good scolding but _holy shit_ — was Kyungwon actually flirting back? "No, no," Minkyung mumbles to herself. "Don't get ahead of yourself now." She focuses her mind on what she should reply, tries to come up with a smooth return but before she comes up with one, Kyungwon's sent her another message again.

 **Kyungwon** : my mom is forcing me to go to sleep already and i really don't want her to keep barging in my room until i finally do sleep -__- thanks again for the notes, i really appreciate it! i'll see you on monday

Minkyung feels a little disappointed but she takes it in stride.

 **Minkyung** : alright, good night :)

 **Kyungwon** : good night :)

Kyungwon's status switches from 'Active' to 'Offline' and Minkyung decides to call it a night as well. Her legs feel as heavy as lead and she can barely move her arms, all of which she barely noticed when the adrenaline from talking to Kyungwon was still pumping through her bloodstream, so she crashes on her bed, face-first on her pillow. She smiles to herself. Today wasn't so bad after all.

 

Come Monday morning, Siyeon is the first to notice the skip in Minkyung's steps but it's Yebin who says, "Okay, Minky. _Spill_."

So spill she does (as absurdly gross as that sounds when put out of context). She animatedly tells them about what Mr. Hong had asked her to do and showed them her chat with Kyungwon. Siyeon immediately pulls out her phone and texts Jieqiong to come over "right now immediately", who in turn calls Eunwoo and tells _her_ to drop whatever she's doing because "Minkyung is finally gonna get some, if you know what I mean" (Eunwoo had been horrified that Jieqiong was implying _they_ were going to give Minkyung the said 'some', to which Siyeon said, "Fucking _never_ , man"), who then called Nayoung to join them and it's a miracle Nayoung even did. Minkyung had to re-tell her story again and again with each arrival of another person but by the end of it, everyone was losing their shit — except for Nayoung, because Nayoung hardly ever lost her shit over anything — and everyone is shushing them.

The first bell of the day rings, they attend the flag ceremony and are off to their respective classes. Jieqiong gives her a thumbs up and Siyeon says, "Well, you've pretty much kicked it off with her already so go get your girl." Her morning goes smoothly and she's still on a hell of a high. People take notice of it, tell her she's practically glowing or something. Seokmin almost ruins that when he walks up to her during lunch time at the cafeteria and asks her for the cash she'd promised him in exchange of his notes ("I was desperate, okay?" Minkyung says defensively, to which Eunwoo retorts, "You literally could have just called up either Siyeon or Nayoung and he would have given you those notes for free, you dumbass." She hates how Eunwoo is totally correct) and she begrudgingly hands him crumpled bills. "Pleasure doing business with you," he says cheekily and walks away happy with his loot.

("Should have called Nayoung," Yebin says in between munches of her sandwich. "Or Siyeon. Definitely Siyeon."

Eunwoo scrunches her nose at Yebin. "Close your mouth when you eat, Yebin. Don't be disgusting.")

Minkyung practically sprints to math class even though she's far from late for class. In fact, she'd been the first out of the door when her previous class ended and she went into Usain Bolt mode just to get to math class before Kyungwon. She even zips past Mr. Hong and it makes her feel a little good about herself because _ha_ , she actually beat her teacher to his own class. The class is half-full when she arrives and she happily walks over to her seat, a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. Mr. Hong arrives shortly after and he looks at her strangely, the bell rings and Kyungwon walks through the classroom door. Minkyung stops herself from bouncing excitedly in her seat.

Kyungwon walks over to Mr. Hong first and hands him what Minkyung assumes is an excuse letter and a bunch of papers that look like the homework Kyungwon's missed. A few words are exchanged and Kyungwon makes her way to her seat. Minkyung pretends to be busy doodling on her notebook and tries to play it cool. She sneaks a quick glance at Kyungwon and averts her eyes back down to her notebook. A few seconds later, there’s a light tapping on her desk and she looks up again and is greeted by a smiling Kyungwon.

“Hey,” Kyungwon greets her. The light coming in through the window hits her so perfectly and her lashes cast tiny shadows down on her cheeks. It physically pains Minkyung to look at something so... _so_ …

“Hey,” Minkyung manages with a dopey smile. She can already imagine Siyeon making fun of her for smiling like an idiot. “How’re you doing?”

“Much better, thanks,” Kyungwon replies. She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. She leans forward, or as much more forward as she can in her seat, and says, “I just wanted to say thank you again for helping me catch up with last week’s lessons.”

Minkyung waves a hands dismissively. “Hey, it’s no biggie.”

Kyungwon giggles softly and Minkyung feels like the air has been knocked out of her lungs. _God, why does she have to be so fucking cute?_ Minkyung thinks. “Still, though,” Kyungwon says, “I really want to repay you.”

“What? No, that isn’t necessary. Like, you really don’t need to.”

“But I want to,” Minkyung says, puckering her lower lip out in a pout. Minkyung swears that Kang Kyungwon will be the death of her. “So please let me.”

Minkyung fidgets with her pen. “Alright, since you insist.”

“Great!” Kyungwon’s eyes light up. “We could go out for, I don’t know, ice cream later. There’s this ice cream shop nearby that’s newly opened but it’s really good.”

Minkyung is about to jump off her seat and say yes but then she remembers that she has training later and there’s a team meeting right after. _Damn it all_. “Can we move it to tomorrow? We’ve got some super important team meeting later and coach will have my head if I ditch.”

Kyungwon nods. “Sure. Oh, can I have your number by the way? So it’s easy for us to contact each other tomorrow and all that.”

Minkyung all but flips her desk. “S-sure,” she stammers and rips off a portion of the page of her notebook she’d been doodling on, scribbles her number down on it. She hands it to Kyungwon, who accepts it with a hum. “Just text me later so I can save your number.”

Kyungwon nods and places the strip of paper into the breast pocket of their school uniform. With a wink — _Jesus Christ, how is it possible for someone to be_ this _attractive?_ — she says, “It’s a date, then.”

  
  
  
  
Minkyung tells the gang about it later and everyone collectively loses their shit. Except Nayoung, but Minkyung figures she’s probably losing her shit in that calm and collected and totally silent way of hers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minkyung has a crush on Kyungwon. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, this fic's turned out to be one hell of a fucking meme. let it be known i started this entire thing after binge-watching brooklyn nine nine season 1. also, this turned out a little bit longer than the previous part and longer than i expected.

Her hair is still damp and her shirt is askew when Minkyung steps out of the locker room, her gym bag slung on one (aching) shoulder. Behind her, Jieqiong whoops “Good luck on your date, kiddo!” and Nayoung waves goodbye. Minkyung pulls out her phone from her pocket and looks for Kyungwon’s number in her contacts list. She still gets giddy thinking that yes, she does indeed have Kyungwon’s number now. She says, _hey :) just done with training. where are you?_

 _at the library_ , Kyungwon replies. _meet me at the gate of the school? :)_

_sure. see ya~_

By the time Minkyung gets there, she finds Kyungwon waiting for her. Kyungwon looks up from her phone and flashes that billion kilowatt (that was the unit, right? Fuck, Minkyung honestly couldn’t remember, not when Kyungwon’s smiling at her like that)  smile of hers and it takes all of Minkyung’s remaining energy to not melt into a puddle of good right then and there. Kyungwon gives her a once over and says, “Huh. Different seeing you out of school uniform.”

Minkyung blushes. She doesn’t know why, but she does. _Get a grip, man_. Kyungwon takes note of how she’s blushing and laughs. “I meant it in a good way, silly,” Kyungwon reassures her. “I feel terribly overdressed now, though.”

“The uniform looks good on you, though,” Minkyung says. Then she mentally kicks herself. _Oh my God, Kim Minkyung you idiot_ , her mind groans at her. _What the hell was_ that? She clears her throat awkwardly and stammers, “I mean, you know...uh…” In the back of her head, she can hear Yebin’s voice mocking her for being so lame and really, as much as she hates to admit it, Imaginary Yebin is right. At least Imaginary Yebin is a little bit more tolerable than Actual Yebin.

Kyungwon giggles softly and Minkyung has to control herself from sighing dreamily about it. “So, shall we? The shop is about five to ten minutes from here.” She spots Minkyung’s gym bag. “I could carry that for you, if you want. You look pretty exhausted.”

Minkyung shakes her head almost too adamantly. “No, no, it’s fine! I’m fine.”

Kyungwon mumbles something under her breath but Minkyung doesn’t catch what she says. She follows Kyungwon’s lead as they walk to the ice cream shop Kyungwon had suggested and even though it does only take between five to ten minutes to walk there, Minkyung’s shoulders feel like hell and her legs feel so heavy she’s practically dragging her feet as she walks. When the enter the establishment, Minkyung sits down on the nearest chair and drops her bag to the ground, rolling her shoulders back with a groan.

“You should have taken up my offer to carry that for you,” Kyungwon teases her. “No need to act all tough and strong.”

Minkyung scoffs. “What makes you think I was acting ‘all tough and strong’?”

Kyungwon shrugs. “You seem the type to do that, I guess. Plus, you had this really funny grimace on your face the entire time we were walking here and you kept rubbing your shoulder. And every time I asked you if you were okay, you’d just grin and say you’re fine and then go back to grimacing when I looked away.”

Minkyung blinks a few times and says, “Fuck, you’re pretty observant.”

“Nah, you’re just an open book.” Kyungwon smiles. “So, what flavor do you want? My treat.”

Minkyung thinks about it. “I don’t know, strawberry, I guess? Or is that too generic?”

“There’s no such thing as ice cream that’s too generic,” Kyungwon says firmly, and it’s so cute that Minkyung just wants to reach over and pinch Kyungwon’s cheeks. _Control yourself_ , her mind tells her. _Jesus, don’t do something as incredibly stupid as that_. “Besides, I like vanilla, so I’m pretty sure that out-generics most ‘generic’ ice cream.”

“You’ve got a point there,” Minkyung agrees. “Not that vanilla is a bad flavor or anything. That totally isn’t what I’m trying to say.”

Kyungwon rolls her eyes but laughs. “Stay right here. I’m gonna go order our ice cream.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be going anywhere,” Minkyung jokes. “I can barely move my legs anyway.” She watches Kyungwon get up from her seat and walk towards the counter. Her eyes follow the movement of Kyungwon’s hips and she pinches herself on the arm to step herself from staring.

Kyungwon comes back with two ice cream cones in hand. One had strawberry ice cream, the other had vanilla. Pink and white. She hands Minkyung the strawberry one and gets busy with her own ice cream. Minkyung finds it hard to focus on eating ice cream when her eyes are glued to Kyungwon’s tongue skating over her ice cream, or the way it darts out of her mouth when she licks her lips, and — _oh my fucking God, stop staring at her tongue you fucking perv_ , Minkyung scolds herself. With much effort, she tears her eyes away and swerves all of her focus back to her own ice cream. _Now is not the time for your hormones to kick in!_

“Is something wrong, Minkyung?” Kyungwon asks suddenly. Her ice cream is half-finished while Minkyung’s barely started on hers.

“Oh, no,” Minkyung replies with a dismissive wave of her free hand. “I just, uh, tend to zone out a lot when I’m tired.”

Kyungwon looks at her doubtfully but just nods. “So,” she says, “star of the volleyball team, huh?”

“What?”

“You play volleyball, right?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Kyungwon takes a lick of her ice cream. _Don’t stare at her tongue, don’t stare at her tongue_. “I heard you’re pretty good. Thus the ‘star of the volleyball’ team comment.”

Minkyung blushes. “If anyone’s the star of the team, it’s gotta be Siyeon. Coach Kahi calls her the child prodigy of the team, the golden kid. And it’s true: Siyeon’s one of the youngest members of the team but she’s got mad talent.”

“Even better than you?” There’s a playful glint in Kyungwon’s eyes.

Minkyung wrinkles her nose and feigns offense. “Admittedly, but sometimes only.”

Kyungwon’s eyes crinkle when she smiles. “How do you manage to balance studies with varsity, though? That sounds pretty tiring and crazy.”

“It is,” Minkyung sighs. “There are times when I have to put off sleep just to finish studying for something or to finish a project even when I’m exhausted. It’s a lot of hard work but I love volleyball so it’s worth it to me.”

“I could never manage to do that. I love sleep a little too much.”

“Don’t we all?” Minkyung licks some of the sticky ice cream from her fingers. “It’s the craziest when competition season is at its peak. Most of us are about _this_ close to just dropping dead from fatigue. So I cherish all the sleep I can get, if any.”

“Speaking of,” Kyungwon says, “Do you have any upcoming competitions or games?”

Minkyung nods. “The meeting we had yesterday was for the game this Friday, at school. Coach has been riled up about it for months now. She hates the coach of the school we’re going up against and Eunwoo is still pissed at one of their star players, Park Soyeon, for smashing a ball directly at her face the last time we went against them.”

A bubble of laughter erupts from Kyungwon’s lips and she nearly drops her ice cream. She even _snorts_ . It’s got to be the cutest laugh Minkyung’s ever heard in her entire life and she feels her heart do jumping jacks. “ _God_ , I can just imagine how pissed she’d be.”

“Oh man,” Minkyung groans. “She wouldn’t shut up about it for _months_. Says that her face is insured for a hundred thousand won and if Soyeon isn’t going to pay up then, quote unquote, there will be blood.”

Kyungwon grins. “You guys sound like a riot.”

“‘Mess’ is a better word for it,” Minkyung quips, “but we’re alright, I guess.”

They finish their ice cream and Kyungwon says, “Hey, tell you what: I’ll watch your game this Friday. It’s at school so it’s pretty convenient and it’s about time I was more supportive of our school’s sports endeavors or whatever.”

Minkyung’s face breaks into a grin that spreads from ear to ear. “Really? Oh fuck, now I’m gonna be more pressured to do well and actually win.”

“Think of it as motivation,” Kyungwon replies with a wink. And she’s right, because Minkyung is about five million times more motivated now.

 

 **Eunwoo** : sooooo how’d your date go c:

 **Yebin** : yeah minky give us the deets don’t be a piece of shit

 **Siyeon** : please tell me you didn’t do something horrible to embarrass yourself

 **Minkyung** : no siyeon i did not do anything to embarrass myself

 **Minkyung** : and it went alright

 **Jieqiong** : define alright

 **Yebin** : jieqiong that’s what dictionaries are for

 **Minkyung** : and it wasn’t really a date?? idk i mean we just went to get ice cream

 **Yebin** : what are you??? fucking 60??? sounds like a date to me

 **Siyeon** : hey minky if i kick yebin out of the group will you tell us about your date

 **Yebin** : don’t you fucking dare

 **Nayoung** : you’d honestly be doing all of us a favor

 **Yebin** : et tu, nayoung?

 **Minkyung** : hm i’m considering it…

 **Siyeon** : say no more, friends

 

\- Yebin has been removed from this conversation -

 

 **Siyeon** : so

 **Siyeon** : where were we?

 

The next day in math class, Minkyung is surprised to find a neatly folded piece of paper on her desk. They were halfway into the lecture and Minkyung couldn’t get herself to listen to Mr. Hong’s endless droning about...okay she had no idea what topic they were on now, but either way, she got bored and decided to just draw on her notebook. When she looked up briefly, she found that piece of paper right in front of her. She unfolds it and reads, _i’m bored - kyungwon_. Beside that is a hastily drawn girl with a string of z’s coming out of her mouth. Minkyung grins.

 _passing notes in class? tsk tsk_ , she writes on the paper and lightly taps Kyungwon’s shoulder. Kyungwon doesn’t turn her head around when she takes the paper back from Minkyung. She passes it back after a few seconds and it says, _doodling in class? tsk tsk_.

Okay, that backfired on Minkyung but she finds everything Kyungwon does adorable so she’ll let this one slide. _guilty lol_ , Minkyung writes.

And that’s how they spend the rest of their time, passing notes back and forth while Mr. Hong remained absolutely clueless to their shenanigans.

 

“Dude, you guys were passing notes to each other in class,” Yebin says. “She’s totally into you.”

“ _And_ she’s gonna watch the game this Friday for you,” Eunwoo adds. Siyeon hums in agreement.

Minkyung rolls her eyes at them but she feels warmth spread through her chest. The thought of it excites her: what if they were right and Kyungwon had a thing for her too? What if Kyungwon’s cute little notes in class meant Kyungwon was actually flirting back? “I’m not gonna make assumptions,” she tells her friends. “What if she’s just really nice or whatever?”

Yebin groans. “I just told you she’s into you, man. I’m, like, a fucking love expert. You can totally take my word for it.”

“You? A love expert?” Siyeon snorts. “Sure, Jan.”

Yebin frowns. “Who’s Jan?”

“Great, you’re a liar _and_ an uncultured swine,” Eunwoo mumbles. To Minkyung, she says, “But hey, things are looking up for you, at least. You’re on the right track, kiddo.”

Siyeon lightly punches Minkyung on the arm. “Good job, Minky.”

 

The days that lead to Friday are all the same. Minkyung’s mornings are composed of hurriedly shoving scrambled eggs between two loaves of bread as she rushes to get to school, fighting to find a parking space and getting to the flag ceremony in time. By lunch time, she’s starving all over again and she’s carbo-loading more than she probably should and more than what Coach Kahi would probably approve but hey, a girl’s got to eat. Her favorite part of the day is math class in the afternoon, for obvious reasons. Kyungwon passes cute notes to her in class and it feels like they’re in their own bubble. When she heads to training, she’s got the goofiest smile on her face that not even Coach Kahi’s intense regimens and yelling could take away.

On Thursday evening, right after Minkyung steps out of the shower, she checks her phone and scrolls through all her unread messages. One, in particular, catches her eye. _Kang Kyungwon (3)_ . The first message says, _hey, champ! ^^_  The next says, _make sure to get enough rest tonight! big day tomorrow_ . Finally, the last message says, _i hope this isn’t too weird or whatever, haha_.

Minkyung actually _squeals_ when she finishes reading the messages for the third time. She walks to her bed and plops down on it happily. _not weird at all_ , she says. _and yes mom i’m gonna rest my ass off. thanks for caring :3._ She cringes at the emoticon right after she hits send but what’s done is done.

 _no pressure tomorrow, yeah?_ Kyungwon replies, and Minkyung can imagine the playful smile that Kyungwon would have on her face if she’d said this in person. _of course not,_ Minkyung tells her. An absolute lie, because she knows that having Kyungwon watching her play will just make her a fumbling mess and will probably mess up her game big time.

_alrighty haha good night, minkyung ^^ see you tomorrow!_

_good night, kyungwon c:_

Minkyung shoves her phone underneath her pillow and prays that she doesn’t mess up tomorrow, not so much because she knows Coach Kahi will be hard on her but more so because she knows her teammates won’t let her live this one down if she makes a fool of herself in front of Kyungwon and a hundred or so other people. No pressure, though.

 

“That bitch Park Soyeon better be ready to have her ass kicked,” Eunwoo growls. They’re all huddled in the locker room, changing into their uniforms. Yebin throws her head back in laughter and Nayoung softly chuckles to herself. “After that stunt she pulled last time, oh, _there will be blood_.”

Jieqiong asks, “Didn’t she say it was an accident? That she wasn’t actually aiming for your face on purpose?”

“Do you seriously buy that, Jieqiong?” Eunwoo hisses. “That bullshit excuse? Fuck no, man. Fucking fuck no. You should have seen the look on her face! She was aiming it right at _me_! It wasn’t just some accident. And you know what’s gonna happen today?”

“Yes, Eunwoo,” Nayoung says in a bored tone. She ties her hair up into a sleek ponytail. “That’s all you’ve been talking about since this morning.”

Siyeon stretches her arms. “It’d be a pity if you didn’t get your payback.”

“Oh, I _will_ get my payback,” Eunwoo says, and honestly, she looks like she could kill a man with her bare hands and it frightens Minkyung. Speaking of — “Hey, Minky. Why’re you so quiet?”

Minkyung looks up from her phone. “Oh, uh, nothing,” she says unconvincingly. She offers a weak smile at them all. “Just, you know, pre-game jitters I guess.”

Jieqiong cocks a brow at her. “That is _clearly_ a lie.”

“Oh, what are you? Some lie detector now?”

Everyone stares at her blankly.

Minkyung deflates. “ _Fine_ , whatever. I’m nervous because Kyungwon’s gonna be in the crowd today and like, what if I mess up? What if my game isn’t good today?”

Yebin walks over to Minkyung and slings an arm over her shoulder. Siyeon cuddles up to Minkyung’s others side and nudges her reassuringly. “You’ll do fine,” Siyeon says. Minkyung appreciates this side of Siyeon a lot. Siyeon, despite being the scariest out of them all and the most intimidating right after Nayoung, is a ball of fluff and rainbows deep down. “And it’d be pretty stupid for her to ruin your game because isn’t she, like, supposed to be your good luck charm? Not the harbinger of death and plagues or whatever other tragic things harbingers bring?”

Minkyung cracks up at that. “Well, okay, you’ve got a point there.”

“I’m Park Siyeon,” Siyeon says proudly. “I’m always right.”

“Uh, no you aren’t?” Yebin contests. “Just because you’re the golden girl of the team and you’re probably, like, on Einstein’s level of genius or something, you can be wrong, too.”

“Name one time Siyeon was wrong,” Eunwoo challenges. Yebin opens her mouth to speak and frowns; defeated, she grumbles, “I hate you guys so much sometimes.”

“Kang Yebin v.s. The World,” Jieqiong says dramatically. Then, “Okay, honestly that sounds like a pretty shitty movie.”

“The World would obviously win,” Nayoung remarks. “Also, we’ve totally sidetracked ourselves from the whole point of this conversation.”

Yebin ruffles Minkyung’s hair. “You’ll do fine, dude. And I don’t think it’d matter to her if you played bad or singlehandedly took out the other team —”

“Hey, save Park Soyeon for me!” Eunwoo interjects.

“— because, I, a love expert, am sure that she’s into you too and she’d appreciate anything you do nonetheless,” Yebin finishes. “Also, if she _does_ distract you too much and we lose, you aren’t allowed to date her.”

“ _Yebin_ ,” says Jieqiong, Nayoung, Siyeon and Eunwoo simultaneously.

Yebin holds her hands up. “‘Twas a joke, friends. ‘Twas a joke.”

Minkyung beams at all of them, all of her nervousness thrown out of the window. Sure, their team was a mess most of the time and they were a little too crazy even for Coach Kahi, but they’re a family. (“Ohana means family, and — fucking hell, what was the quote again?” Yebin said, and Siyeon exclaimed, “Fucking _really_ , Yebin? How do you not know one of the most iconic quotes of all time? How _dare_ you do this to Lilo  & Stitch!” Let it be known that Siyeon loves Lilo & Stitch just a tad bit too much.)

“Alright, team,” Nayoung says, huddling them together. “Ready?”

Minkyung is the first to answer: “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

 

That was a complete lie because not even ten minutes into the game, Minkyung spots Kyungwon looking right at her with that annoyingly (also a lie; Minkyung could never find it annoying) gorgeous smile of hers plastered on her face and Minkyung almost trips on her face. Siyeon has a vice grip on her elbow when she hisses “Get it together!” under her breath. Minkyung slaps herself a few times on the face and mumbles “Okay, I got this, I’m calm and collected” to herself over and over until she actually starts acting like it.

They have a shaky start and Minkyung can almost see the steam coming out of Eunwoo’s nose and ears. They pick up the pace slowly after though, and everything goes smoothly from the point onward until they’re down to their last set. “One more set to go, you guys,” Eunwoo says in between pants. “One more set and I can finally wipe that smug look off of Soyeon’s face.”

“Is this really all you’re concerned about right now?” Jieqiong asks. She wipes the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand.

Minkyung tunes out her teammate’s voices and searches the crowd again for Kyungwon. It takes her a while to finally find her, but when she does, she waves at her direction and Kyungwon waves back. Minkyung feels the jitters slowly crawling back into her system, thinks _oh no, not again_ , but Kyungwon puts two thumbs up and mouths _good luck!_ and Minkyung feels her confidence slowly build back up. She returns the thumbs up and mouths _thanks_.

“Oh my God, can you please save your flirting for later, child?” Yebin teases. “We still have to help Eunwoo go all Fire and Blood or whatever on Park Soyeon.”

Minkyung elbows Yebin’s side and offers one last smile to Kyungwon before getting her game face back on.

 

They win and Eunwoo finally gets the satisfaction of wiping the smirk off of Park Soyeon’s face. Eunwoo gives her victory speech (“I waited _a long fucking time_ to finally deliver this Nobel Prize-worthy speech,” she says before starting, “So you guys better listen”) and even Coach Kahi is in a pretty good mood so she lets Eunwoo do what she wants.

After they all shower and get changed, Nayoung says, “Dinner’s on me, since you all did really great earlier.” The girls cheer in delight.

“Also to celebrate how I, Jung Eunwoo, have finally gotten back at Park Soyeon,” Eunwoo adds proudly. “That’s the highlight of this entire evening.”

“I’m pretty sure the highlight of the evening was the killer spike Minkyung did,” Jieqiong argues. “You know, the one that actually won us the game.”

Nayoung claps Minkyung on the back, lips curled into a smile, and says, “I guess she had a little motivation and inspiration, didn’t she?” The other girls start wolf-whistling and Minkyung’s face flushes beet red, her face so hot she could probably fry an egg on it.

“Fine, fine, I’ll let Minky have this one,” Eunwoo says. “I’ll let her steal my thunder just this once.”

They walk out of the locker room and the first thing — well, first person — that greets Minkyung is Kyungwon. Minkyung yelps and stumbles backwards into Nayoung and Jieqiong, who each give her amused looks. Kyungwon fights back her giggles. “O-oh, hey,” Minkyung greets lamely. She’s got that dopey smile again and she can hear Siyeon snickering at the back. “What’re you doing here?”

Kyungwon smiles shyly. “I asked where the locker room was because I wanted to congratulate you personally. You did really great, earlier.”

“Oh,” Minkyung replies. She scratches the back of her head, cheeks tinged with pink. “Thanks. But you really didn’t have to do this, you know. You could have just texted me and it would have been fine.”

Before Kyungwon can say anything, Yebin pushes her way to the front and slings an arm across Minkyung’s shoulder. “Hey there, you must be Kyungwon, yeah?” she says. Minkyung feels her stomach churn because knowing Yebin, this would probably lead to something that’d just embarrass her.

Kyungwon nods. “Yeah. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Kyungwon. I’m Yebin and our Minky’s told us _so much_ about you.”

“Really?” Kyungwon’s face lights up and Minkyung feels all the air get knocked out of her lungs. Minkyung didn’t expect that kind of reaction and really, if this had been any other situation and if Yebin wasn’t the one doing all the talking, this would have been absolutely perfect.

Minkyung shoves aside Yebin and says, “You know what, just ignore Yebin. That’s what we all do, anyway.”

It surprises Minkyung, and everyone, when Nayoung tells Kyungwon, “We were just about to go have dinner, to celebrate and all that.” It surprises Minkyung even more when Jieqiong adds, “You can tag along, if you want! We don’t mind.” Minkyung feels like she’s wedged between her two moms or something, embarrassing her in front of the girl she likes. One of the other girls quoting Mulan and asking Kyungwon to stay forever would just be the cherry on top of it all.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Kyungwon replies, then she bites down on her lower lip. “This is supposed to be a team thing and I don’t wanna disrupt that and make things awkward for you guys.”

Eunwoo answers, “Psh, it’s fine! Minky would probably beg us to make you come with us if you weren’t standing right in front of her right now.”

“ _Okay, anyway_ ,” Minkyung says, her voice pitched two octaves higher than usual, “Let’s pretend you did not just hear anything my teammates just told you.”

“But seriously, you can tag along with us,” Siyeon says. “It’ll be fun and they” — she motions to everyone — “promise to behave.”

“ _They_ _?_ ” Yebin asks, offended.

“I’m the most civilized one here and you know that,” Siyeon replies. “So, Kyungwon. What say you?”

Kyungwon lets her eyes pass over each and every one of them before they land back on Minkyung. She says, “Only if Minkyung wants me around.”

Minkyung blurts out “Yes!” too eagerly and she collects herself, clears her throat. “I mean, yeah sure.” She nods. “Yeah, totally cool. Superb. I’m gonna shut up now.”

Kyungwon laughs and it sounds like music to Minkyung’s ears. Eunwoo groans “Can we please go now? I’m starving!” and they start walking; Kyungwon walks right beside Minkyung at the back of the group, their shoulders bumping. When Kyungwon offers to carry Minkyung’s bag for her, Minkyung agrees this time. Her shoulder deserved a break.

“So,” Kyungwon says. “‘Minky’?”

“Oh, _that_ ,” Minkyung replies. “It’s the team’s nickname for me. The first time my mom met the team, she started showing them some of my baby pics and there was one of me wearing a Mickey Mouse baby onesie or whatever.”

Kyungwon raises her brows, a smile playing on her lips. “So they called you Minky? As in…”

“Minky Mouse,” Minkyung mumbles. She remembers how Yebin had called her that and how it cracked everyone up. Eunwoo and Yebin wouldn’t let it go for a week until they finally just settled with calling her Minky.

“I think it’s a cute nickname.” Kyungwon links her arm with Minkyung’s and it takes all of Minkyung’s will and strength to not explode right on the spot. “I like it.”

Something about the way Kyungwon looks at her makes her nearly trip over herself. When she looks down, she sees that she’s stepped on one of her shoelaces; _of course_ she managed to not tie her shoelaces properly. Way to ruin a moment.

 

  
After dinner, Minkyung says, “Sorry if you had to bear with a whole hour and a half of my teammates being a bunch of idiots.”

Kyungwon laughs. “No, it’s fine. I like them, they’re fun to be around.”

Minkyung glances over to Siyeon and Yebin arguing about something while Jieqiong, Nayoung and Eunwoo stare at them in bewilderment. “Huh. ‘Fun’.”

“I’m not kidding!” Kyungwon says. “They’re an interesting bunch of people, at least.”

“Now _that_ sounds like a far better description.”

Kyungwon is about to say something when her phone starts ringing. She ends the call a few seconds later, turns to Minkyung and says, “My dad called and said he’s just around the corner. I’m gonna go meet him halfway.” She reaches for Minkyung’s hand and gives it a squeeze. She smiles. “Thanks for tonight. I had a lot of fun.”

Minkyung lets out a shaky laugh. Her heart feels like it’s about to just rip its way through her chest and her legs feel like they’re about to give in right from under her. “It’s nothing, dude. Thanks for watching the game today, even though I was total shit for, like, the entire first half.”

“You can expect me to watch more of your games in the future,” Kyungwon promises. She looks over Minkyung’s shoulder to the car rolling up the driveway. “Hey, my dad’s here. I’ll see you on Monday, Minky.” She pauses. “Is it alright if I call you that?”

Minkyung nods. A little too much. “Of course it is.”

“Alright,” Kyungwon says. She gives Minkyung’s hand one last squeeze — it’s only now that Minkyung realizes that _holy shit_ , they’ve been holding hands the entire time, _holy fuck_ — before she jogs to her dad’s car. She opens the door, stops to wave goodbye to the team and to Minkyung, and steps inside. The car drives off and Minkyung rejoins her teammates.

Jieqiong nudges her. “Did I just see you two holding hands?”

“No fucking way,” Yebin gasps. “You work fast, Kim Minkyung.”

Minkyung rolls her eyes. “It’s just hand-holding. That’s no big deal.”

Siyeon raises her brows at Minkyung. “Sure, go tell yourself that even though you have the biggest and giddiest smile on your face right now.”

There are a lot of things Minkyung hates, and one of them is Park Siyeon being absolutely right about everything.

 

This Monday is different from any other and every other Monday. It’s not that there’s anything particularly special or out of this world about it. No two-headed humanoids or unicorns frolicking around the campus or...okay, the point is taken. For the most part, the day is about as normal as any other day in all of Minkyung’s years of existence on this planet. What _does_ change is everything with Kyungwon.

They still pass notes in class and Mr. Hong still doesn’t pay attention to a thing that’s going on in class ( _seriously_ , Minkyung writes to Kyungwon, _how is this guy still a teacher_ ) but when Minkyung gets home later that evening from training, she finds a few unread messages from Kyungwon on Messenger. It doesn’t end there, though — they spend the entire night talking to each other and Minkyung falls asleep with her phone still in her hand. The next morning, Minkyung is yawning like crazy and she actually sleeps through lunch time. “Who the fuck sleeps through _lunch_ _time_?” Yebin exclaims. Minkyung just sleepily raises her middle finger to Yebin and continues sleeping.

That isn't the end of it. For the rest of the week, they stay up talking to each other at the expense of a good night’s rest, but it’s totally worth it. Minkyung’s mom notices something, though, and she asks Minkyung about it over dinner.

(“Have you been staying up?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Minkyung answers. “For totally reasonable reasons, mind you.”

“What 'reasonable reasons' could you possibly have?”

Minkyung feigns offense. “Well, I, a fanatic of academia —”

Her mom drops the topic entirely after that.)

It goes until the next week. And the next, and the next, and the next, and then it becomes a month, and then two — all until it becomes a part of their daily routine. All of it is worth it though because when Kyungwon smiles at her with _that_ smile, the one that’s just for the two of them, Minkyung feels like she’s queen of the world.

  
  
  
Eat, sleep, talk to Kyungwon until the crack of dawn, repeat. Eat, sleep, talk to Kyungwon until the crack of dawn, repeat. It’s at this point that Kyungwon becomes an unshakable fixture in Minkyung’s life and she really wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

 

They start to notice the subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) differences in Minkyung and Kyungwon’s relationship.

 **Exhibit A**. Wednesday, lunch time. Kyungwon passes by the volleyball team’s table at the cafeteria and walks up behind Minkyung, places her hands on Minkyung’s shoulders and it looks like she’s about to just completely wrap her arms around Minkyung’s neck. Minkyung nearly leaps out of her skin.

“Fuck,” Minkyung gasps. “You surprised me there.”

Kyungwon giggles and says, “Just wanted to say hi.” She gives Minkyung’s shoulders a squeeze and walks away towards her friends’ table. When she’s out of sight, Siyeon and Eunwoo have equally surprised looks on their faces and all Minkyung can say to them is, “What?”

 **Exhibit B**. Friday, school hallway. Minkyung whips her head around when she hears someone call “Minky!”  Eunwoo and Jieqiong also turn their heads to look at whoever it was that called Minkyung. They’re surprised to find that it’s Kyungwon, who walks up to Minkyung with a big smile and Minkyung dips her head a bit so Kyungwon can whisper something in her ear. They don’t miss how Kyungwon and very loosely and discreetly links their fingers together or how Minkyung is smiling like crazy after Kyungwon leaves. Jieqiong and Eunwoo stare at her but all she can say is, “What?”

 **Exhibit C** . Tuesday, lockers. Soonyoung actually walks up to Minkyung and asks her if she’s seen Kyungwon, to which she asks “Why are you asking me?” and he innocently answers “I don’t know, I thought you guys were dating or something.” Siyeon’s eye grow wide because if the entire student body is actually catching onto this thing, then why in the world is Minkyung so oblivious to, like, _everything?_

Minkyung just rubs the back of her neck and says, “I honestly don’t know, man. And we aren’t dating.”

Soonyoung ponders on that. “Seriously? I was under the impression you were. Thanks, though.”

When he walks away, Siyeon crosses her arms over her chest and cocks a brow at Minkyung. And what does Minkyung have to say to that? Minkyung just stares at her in confusion and mumbles, “What?”

 

 

 **Minkyung** : oh my goddddd

 **Kyungwon** : ???

 **Minkyung** : sorry it’s just that i’m watching this episode of brooklyn 99 and like

 **Minkyung** : paintball bachelorette party that’s absolute genius

 **Kyungwon** : oh i thought something serious happened

 **Minkyung** : hey brooklyn 99 is serious

 **Minkyung** : wait no

 **Kyungwon** : would you want a paintball bachelorette party?

 **Minkyung** : hell yeah that sounds like a lot of fun

 **Kyungwon** : haha yeah that does sound like a lot of fun

 **Kyungwon** : oh out of curiosity, what’s your ideal type btw

 **Kyungwon** : i hope it isn’t weird that ask you that

 **Kyungwon** : i’m just, you know, curious

 

Minkyung actually has to pause the episode she’s watching to think of an answer.

 

 **Minkyung** : nah it isn’t weird

 **Minkyung** : idk what my ideal type is actually

 

(When she shows this to The Gang™ later, Siyeon snorts and says, “You don’t know what your ideal type is? You’re a horrible liar because you were literally just talking to Miss Ideal Type.”)

 

 **Kyungwon** : really? well idk what my ideal type is either so

 **Kyungwon** : maybe tall, athletic, lean build, pretty eyes. idk what else.

 

Minkyung presses play on the episode again. Her mind is so focused on the episode that she doesn’t even realize what she’s typed and sent Kyungwon until her phone buzzes a few seconds later with a reply from the other girl.

 

 **Minkyung** : so me, basically

 **Kyungwon** : maybe :)

 

Minkyung almost chucks her phone to the other side of her room. Except she doesn’t, because it would obviously be very stupid if she did that. She takes a screenshot of this portion of their conversation and sends it to the team’s group chat with the caption ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ and returns to her and Kyungwon’s conversation. She chews on her lower lip as she decides what to reply. She eventually settles on ‘you’re making me blush’ and hits send. She puts her phone away and waits for a reply. In the meantime, she finishes the rest of the episode and loads the next one. Her phone buzzes a few minutes later.

 

 **Yebin** : do you have no sense of time at all, kim minkyung

 **Yebin** : also: nice

 **Yebin** : now leave us alone you ruined my beauty sleep

 

Minkyung looks at the time. Half past one. Okay, not the best time to be sending things to the group chat, so she sends a quick apology and promises to tell them all about it when they see each other at school tomorrow. Er, _later_. She checks Kyungwon’s reply.

 

 **Kyungwon** : eh you’re not bad

 

Minkyung frowns. She knows Kyungwon is just pulling her leg, but _still_.

 

 **Minkyung** : ‘not bad’??? >:[

 **Kyungwon** : you’re cute, though c:

 **Minkyung** : thanks but i’m still lowkey offended

 **Minkyung** : but you’re cute too

 

Minkyung has to pinch herself because she can’t believe this is something that’s actually happening right now. She takes another screenshot and sends it to the team’s group chat again, this time following it up with a ‘sorry i’ll just explain everything later but LOOK’ message.

 

 **Kyungwon** : glad you think so hehe

 **Kyungwon** : can’t keep my eyes open much longer so i’m gonna sleep now ^^ night, minky

 **Minkyung** : night, kyungwon :) sleep well and sweet dreams

 **Kyungwon** : you too, don’t stay up too late

  
Kyungwon goes offline a few seconds later and Minkyung’s cheeks are sore from how much she’s smiling. Then, she realizes that she’s missed out on at least a third of the episode she’d been watching so she watches it from the start again. It’s useless though because she conks out five minutes later.

 

“Dude, she’s into you,” Yebin says. She shakes Minkyung by her shoulders. “I told you, didn’t I? She’s, like, totally into you.” Minkyung shrugs off Yebin’s hands. “You’re just a few steps away from getting in her pants.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nayoung groans. Yebin and Minkyung had almost forgotten Nayoung was with them just because she’d been so quiet the entire time, too absorbed with her lecture notes. “Why do we allow you to say things, Yebin?”

Minkyung looks away to hide the blush on her cheeks. “How can you even be sure of any of that? And no, I am _not_ referring to the getting-in-her-pants part, just so we’re clear.” She sighs. “How can you even be sure that she has a thing for me too?”

“Are you _truly_ this unaware of how much you and Kyungwon have been flirting?” Nayoung answers on Yebin’s behalf. It surprises both Yebin and Minkyung, but they know that once Nayoung sticks her nose into any business, there’s no going back. “There’s nothing platonic anymore about how she talks to you.”

Yebin nods, arms crossed over her chest. “This is the legendary and all-knowing Im Nayoung speaking now, so you can bet your ass she’s right.”

“Yebin.”

“Right, sorry. I’ll stop now.  Anyway, continue.”

“A lot of the stuff that comes out of Yebin’s mouth is nonsense, sure, but she’s right about this one,” Nayoung tells Minkyung seriously. “You’d have to be pretty dense to not see that yourself.”

Minkyung blinks a few times. “Honestly, this all sounds a lot more logical when Nayoung says it. No offense, Yebin.”

“None taken,” Yebin answers. Then she scowls. “Okay, just _a little_ offense taken.”

“You _are_ right to ask us how we can be absolutely positive she reciprocates your feelings or your interest,” Nayoung continues. “Because, honestly, there’s no guarantee that we’re right, anyway. We’re just basing this off of everything you’ve shown us and everything we’ve seen, which all point to the conclusion that she _does_ . The only way for _you_ to know this for a fact is for you to find out yourself.”

Yebin slow claps in earnest. “Im Nayoung, queen of giving speeches.”

“Yebin.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Carry on.”

Minkyung looks back and forth between Yebin and Nayoung and she exclaims, “So you’re saying that I should tell her I like her?”

Nayoung stares back at her blankly and replies, “You said that, not me.” After that, she turns all of her attention back to her lecture notes and acts like this entire conversation never happened.

 

 

“Alright, folks,” Minkyung announces. She looks at everyone — this time, it’s the entire team — one by one and breathes out. “Operation ‘Tell Kyungwon I Like Her and then Maybe Get Her to Go Out With Me’ is now in full swing.”

There is a collective groan from everyone. Siyeon mutters, “When will you stop naming these things such horrible things?”

“Well, I’m _sorry_ I’m not the queen of naming things or whatever, Siyeon,” Minkyung retorts, “but that totally isn’t the point here right now. The point is Nayoung gave me the idea of finally telling Kyungwon how I feel —”

“No,” Nayoung interjects. “ _You_ were the one who said that, not me.”

“Im Nayoung, queen of proving people wrong,” Eunwoo whispers, and Nayoung looks at her pointedly.

“— and after much deliberation, I’ve finally decided that I _will_ tell her,” Minkyung continues. “I just need your opinion on how I should do it.”

“Do you have the outline of your elaborate plan with you right now?” Yebin asks. When Minkyung nods, reaching inside her bag for it, Yebin adds, “Good, now tear it to pieces and throw it away. Burn it too, for good measure.”

Minkyung deflates. “Fucking hell, Yebin.”

“Just tell her you like her,” Siyeon says. “No frills or anything. Just find a time when you two are alone and tell her you like her.”

“At least that way if we’re wrong about her liking you back, you won’t regret anything, as opposed to doing some big and romantic gesture and then having your heart crushed and effort wasted,” Jieqiong adds. Everyone turns to gape at her. “What? I’m just being practical.”

Nayoung and Siyeon nod. “Valid point,” Eunwoo remarks.

Minkyung sighs. “So all you’re saying is that I should just tell her as is, no crazy and frilly and flamboyant confessions or whatever.”

“Yes,” they all say in unison.

“Why’d I even call for this meeting?” Minkyung mutters.

 

Minkyung reasons to herself that the reason she’s waited the whole week to tell Kyungwon she likes her is because she couldn’t possibly continue to function as a human being if, say, she told Kyungwon on a Tuesday and got rejected. She’d be too much of a sobbing mess to even bother getting up out of bed and doing what a totally not emotionally wrecked human being would do. It’s totally sound and reasonable. (Except she spends all the days that lead to Friday panicking and rambling in the team’s group chat until Siyeon threatens to kick her out of the group and then she shuts up.)

 _Today is the day_ , Minkyung tells herself when she wakes up on Friday morning. She goes about her day as she normally would, except her hands are fumbly and shaky and she can’t stop chewing on the cap of her pen. She barely even touches her lunch and ends up handing it over to Yebin and Eunwoo who just love her mom’s cooking a little too much. She avoids Kyungwon at all costs today, until math class anyway. All the while, she’s a nervous wreck of a human being.

When the bell rings and she walks to her math class, Minkyung sends a message to Siyeon that says, _dude i’m really nervous like what if i mess up?_

Siyeon replies quickly, saying, _stop being nervous, dude. you got this._

Minkyung smiles but it wavers when she reads Siyeon’s next message: _the worst that can happen is that she’ll reject you anyway so no big deal_ . Then, _oh fuck sorry that totally ruined everything. well anyway, good luck <3 _

Minkyung sighs and places her phone back inside her jacket’s pocket. She lets out the breathe she didn’t know she was holding in and whispers “You’ve got this, Minkyung, you’ve got this” to herself as she opens the door to her classroom and steps inside.

Kyungwon is already in her seat and she looks up briefly and smiles when Minkyung walks past her to her seat. Minkyung manages a weak smile back and kind of just wishes the ground would swallow her whole and never spit her back out. The class fills up, Mr. Hong enters, and math class begins.

Not feeling in the mood for passing notes today, Minkyung pulls out her phones and texts Kyungwon, _hey can you stay a bit after class? it’s super important_ . She almost doesn’t expect Kyungwon to reply but Kyungwon pulls out her own phone from her pocket, reads the message and replies, _yeah sure_ . _are you alright, tho? you don’t look so good._

 _peachy_ , Minkyung replies. _i’m feeling absolutely peachy_.

 

It feels like an eternity but the bell finally rings and their class comes to an end. Both Minkyung and Kyungwon wait for everyone to leave the classroom; Minkyung almost asks Mr. Hong to hurry the hell up and just get out of the classroom already but she controls herself. After what feels like another eternity and a half (if such a thing exists), Mr. Hong finally gets out and Minkyung lets out a relieved sigh.

Kyungwon gets up from her seat, turns to Minkyung, and asks, “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Minkyung gets up from her seat too and wrings her wrists. It dawns on her just now that she has absolutely no idea how to go about this. She considers ditching this entirely and just making up some lame excuse like she forgot what it was and that they should just forget about this completely, but she can hear her friends’ voices at the back of her head scolding her and telling her not to chicken out so she roots herself on the spot. Her heart is beating like a jackhammer and her head is abuzz with thoughts. Her voice cracks a bit when she starts, “I asked you to stay after class because I wanted to tell you that I—” She chokes on that last word, and try as she might, she can’t get herself to finish her sentence and say _I like you_.

Minkyung clears her throat and tries it again: “I just wanted to tell you that I—” Fuck, there it was again. She scowls, shakes her head a few times, gives it another go. “Okay, listen, I really—”

All the while, Kyungwon watches her with an even gaze. Then, her lips slowly form a smile and she says, “I like you too, Minkyung.”

That takes Minkyung by surprise. She actually makes a face at Kyungwon, opens her mouth to say something and closes it, does it again but nothing comes out. She gulps and says, still really confused, “Wait, can you say that again?”

Kyungwon steps closer to Minkyung until their bodies are just a hair’s breadth apart. She places a hand on Minkyung’s waist and leans in closer. She closes the gap between them and presses her lips to Minkyung’s in a soft kiss. When she pulls away, she says again, “I like you too, Minkyung.”

Minkyung feels her brain short-circuiting. “I like you” comes spilling out of her mouth. Then she adds, “Uh, a little late, I know. But yeah. I like you.”

Kyungwon fixes Minkyung’s bangs with a soft chuckle. “I know. I’ve known for a while.”

“Oh my God, which one of them told you?” Minkyung is about fifty percent positive it’s Yebin but the next suspect would probably have to be Eunwoo. Or maybe Siyeon?

Kyungwon looks at her funny. “No one told me, silly. Remember how I told you that you’re an open book that time that we went out for ice cream?”

Minkyung lamely mouths _oh_.

“You were pretty obvious about it,” Kyungwon continues, amused. “I found it really cute, actually. _You’re_ really cute, it’s obnoxious. So I tried to drop hints at you that I was interested in you too and I was kind of just waiting for you to pick up on them.”

Minkyung hands her face behind her hands, embarrassed. “Oh my God,” she moans into her hands. “This is unbelievable. _I’m_ unbelievable.”

“I was _this_ close to making the first move and telling you that I liked you. But I thought that maybe all the flirting would make you, I don’t know, _realize_ or something. So I just sat back and waited it through.”

Minkyung peeks at Kyungwon through her fingers. Kyungwon is smiling at her with so much affection that it makes her heart want to explode. “I’m sorry I’m an idiot.”

“You’re a cute idiot,” Kyungwon corrects her. She takes away Minkyung’s hands from her face. “Still an idiot, though.” She takes her lower lip between her teeth. “And I suppose you’re _my_ cute idiot now, too.”

Minkyung beams at that. Then, shyly, she asks, “Could you maybe, I don’t know, do that thing where you kiss me again?”

Kyungwon does just that — she leans in and kisses her again and much longer this time. When they break the kiss, Minkyung licks her lips and tastes Kyungwon’s cherry chapstick. Kyungwon pulls herself away from Minkyung and grabs her bag from the floor, takes Minkyung’s hand in hers and says, “Let’s go to the library.”

Minkyung picks up her bag too but she frowns. It’s a strange series of events. “The library?”

Kyungwon just throws a playful smile at Minkyung over her shoulder.

 

Minkyung finds that Kyungwon is a _very_ good kisser and that she really, really, _really_ likes making out with her. Suddenly, the library is her new favorite place in the world.

 

“So, Minky,” Yebin says as she slides into the bench opposite Minkyung. “How’d it go?” Minkyung, however, is too preoccupied staring at her phone’s screen and rapidly typing things into it. Yebin exchanges glances with Siyeon, who just shrugs. _I don’t know either_ , Siyeon’s shrug conveys.

Yebin waves a hand in front of Minkyung and when she still doesn’t take notice of it, she starts to wave it more aggressively until Minkyung’s hand shoots out and grabs Yebin’s hand to stop her. “Stop that before your hands actually falls off,” Minkyung tells her. She puts her phone down on the table and Yebin yanks her hand away.

“How’d last Friday go?” Siyeon asks, shoving a spoonful of soup into her mouth with a slurp.

Minkyung shrugs. “Alright, I guess.”

Both Yebin and Siyeon frown at her. “What the hell is that supposed to even mean?” Yebin asks. “Define ‘alright’ in this context, Minky.”

“Look up its dictionary definition,” Minkyung retorts. She takes a glance down at her phone. “That’s pretty much the same meaning it has in this context.”

Siyeon pouts her lips out at Minkyung. “You don’t tell us anything over the entire weekend and now all you have to say is it went ‘alright’. How vague can you get?”

Before anything more can be said, Kyungwon suddenly walks up behind Minkyung and slides into the bench beside her. Siyeon nearly spits out her soup and Yebin bangs her knee on the table when she leaps in surprise when Kyungwon cups Minkyung’s face in her hands and tilts it to the side to kiss her. Kyungwon rests her head on Minkyung’s shoulder after, snuggled into her side.

Siyeon and Yebin gawk at Minkyung with their mouths agape. Minkyung smiles crookedly, barely able to contain her joy, and says, “Okay, maybe it went a little better than ‘alright’.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are lovely and greatly appreciated!


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